Winning formula

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ROOKIE K-pop group Winner topped major music charts with its debut album last week.

The YG Entertainment boyband dropped its debut EP 2014 S/S at midnight on Aug 12, and one of the two main tracks, Empty, instantly appeared at the top of the nine major Korean music charts, including Mnet, Olleh Music and Naver Music.

The other tunes on the album, including the other main track Color Ring, made the top five on the charts.

The group’s five members – Kang Seung-yoon, Lee Seung-hoon, Song Min-ho, Nam Tae-hyun and Kim Jin-woo – helped write and produce the songs on their album.

Winner was first introduced through the reality survival show Who Is Next: WIN, as part of YG CEO Yang Hyun-suk’s latest project to pick members for his newest boy band.

During the program, Team A and Team B, all composed of trainees under the label, vied for a chance to debut in the winner-takes-all competition. The victory went to Team A, which was given the name Winner.

Tech-y music

INTERNATIONAL tech giant Microsoft has featured K-pop girl group 2NE1’s hit single I Am The Best in a new commercial promoting its latest product, the Surface Pro 3.

The song is featured as the background music for an advertisement that compares Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 with Apple’s MacBook Air. The track will be featured on the ad for six months on television, and one year on the Internet and other outlets.

“Microsoft expressed its wish to use 2NE1’s song for the Surface Pro 3 advertisement through an American advertisement firm,” said the group’s agency, YG Entertainment. “The song’s confident lyrics and lively beats made a good fit with the new product’s image.”

I Am The Best is a popular single by 2NE1 released in 2011. The song features a mix of electronic, hip-hop and reggae sounds and at the time of its release, topped local and international K-pop music charts.

Chart-topping

K-POP boy band JYJ’s long-awaited new album Just Us reached fourth place on the latest Billboard world album chart last week.

The global music chart is ranked in terms of sales data compiled by music sales tracker Nielsen Soundscan. Irish band Gaelic Storm topped the latest chart with its greatest hits compilation album, Best Of Gaelic Storm.

Released last month, the record is the JYJ’s second full-length album, three years after its debut record The Beginning. The album comprises 13 tracks, including Valentine, which gained special attention for featuring American singer Chris Brown.

The group also boosted its global power as an artist by ranking second in Japan’s Oricon charts. Not only that, the agency of JYJ, C-Jes Entertainment, recently announced that the number of preorders for the album surpassed 120,000 copies.

Stalker fans

2PM’s Taecyeon became the latest idol star to send a warning message to his obsessive fans.

“Do you really have to follow me in my private time, take pictures and post them?” Taecyeon wrote on his Twitter last Tuesday.

The man is not the only one who suffers from some fans’ extreme behaviour.

For example, the boy group EXO has also seen their fans stalking them around the clock, or even breaking into their dormitories to steal personal belongings.

Super Junior’s Kim Hee-chul also said a fan had broken into the idols’ dormitory, unfolded their underwear and taken pictures.

Taecyeon’s group 2PM is to return to the K-pop scene in September, with a self-composed track on its fourth studio album in Korea and EP in Japan.

Rich girl

IN the hit K-drama, My Love From The Star, Jun Ji-hyun is an actress in financial dire straits, waiting to be saved by an alien suitor with a fortune in real estate.

In real life, Jun has been ranked the richest female star in South Korea by the value of real estate holdings, reported Yonhap News Agency.

The 32-year-old has been an A-list star since 2001, when she starred in the hit movie My Sassy Girl.

The report cited Chaebul.com, a website that tracks Korea’s rich, as saying that Jun owns buildings in southern Seoul with a combined value estimated at 13.15 billion won (RM40.72mil)

The estimate is based on construction costs and the age and location of the properties. But Jun’s holdings have a higher, unofficial market value of 23 billion won (RM71mil), said the report.

She came in fourth among all South Korean celebrities, up three places from a year ago.

Chaebul.com appraised the real estate holdings of 40 top entertainment figures, and said 18 of them own buildings valued at 10 billion won (RM31mil) or higher.

SM Entertainment chairman Lee Soo Man, a former folk singer, was at No. 1. The combined value of his two buildings in Apgujeong, Seoul, is 65 billion won (RM198.2mil), based on market prices, said The Korea Herald. – Agencies